Around 6 months back, one fine early morning, I was walking towards the gym of my apartment building. When I reached there, it was nice and quiet. Just the way I liked it. I jumped on the elliptical machine, put my towel across my shoulders, connected my earphones to my phone and turned on the podcast which I had already heard several times. “The New Earth” – conversations between Oprah and Mr. Eckhart Tolle had been one of my favourite audible wisdom to go to in times when life felt challenging.
That day, I was listening all about coming back to the present moment, not ‘worrying’ about the future and doing what needs to be done without anxiety. I was listening about how our ego and pain manifests in our days and lives and how we can navigate that by always coming back to the present moment and accepting the reality. As I came to the end of my workout and the end of the episode, I wiped the sweat from my forehead thinking, “How will I apply these concepts today? What will I do when I am faced with turbulent times? Will I be able to practice all of this? What if I forget about this during the real hour of need?” I thought to myself and proceeded with the rest of the day.
A few months later, I got not one, but several opportunities to practice all that pearls of spiritual and life wisdom that I had been accumulating. As the world got engulfed with the COVID situation, like every other human here, my life changed too. The present moment reality of a smooth, efficient, comfortable routine was quickly thrown into a front load washing machine where it was washed over and turned, over and over again. Everything changed and nothing was as per the plan. And that is when I learned and practiced several new lessons.
So, recently, when one of the friends of my social media community asked me to share my thoughts on “Accepting the present moment reality”, I thought of reverting back to my own experiences.
- There are days when accepting the present moment is difficult. Presence means accepting that too.
We fight, we cry, we get upset, we get frustrated, we question everything, and we just don’t feel productive. I don’t know if this happens to everyone. But I do know that it happens to a lot of people. And I am one of them. Even after reading tons of spiritual books, meditating every day and having an overall positive outlook towards life, there are days when I struggle. And I have learnt that it is alright.
Learning to accept the present moment also means, learning to accept everything about that moment and creating space to witness whatever you are going through, including your emotions.
- Accepting the reality does not mean giving up or not caring
“I can’t do anything, anyways” is not what I am suggesting we think.
When I had to reschedule all my training and coaching programmes, I was frustrated at first. But then as I reminded myself to accept the present moment, I thought to myself, is there anything that I can do, even here, even now?
Every one’s situation is different, and their challenges are different. And I am not saying that it is going to be easy.
However, I realized that I can either fight and complain that this is happening, or I can accept that without resistance and use my energy to think creatively.
Either I can complain about the business being negatively impacted, or I can accept it and find new ways to help and contribute and keep learning.
Either I can complain that kids’ routine is disturbed, and schools are closed, or I can accept it and think of how I can use this time for us to spend time together.
In any given moment, by practicing the habit of accepting that present moment, I create space for me to move forward from that moment.
- The power of the practical pause
When I was in school, we used to play this game called “Statue”. Which means, one of the friends would point at us all and call out “Statue” and we would all freeze in whichever situation or posture we would be at that time. A few seconds later, the friend would shout out “Go” and we were free to go. Whoever moved before ‘go’ was announced, would lose.
So here, is my suggestion to you. The next time you find yourself fighting with the present moment, getting stressed at work, getting into an argument with someone, worrying about the next thing at work, getting annoyed at kids or whatever it is, play “statue” with yourself.
Take a physical and mental pause. Become a statue and take a deep breath.
And ask yourself, “Am I fighting this moment? What is my biggest problem in this very second? And what can I do to help me be here in this moment?”
I have been using a lot of these pauses lately, especially in my parenting and I am noticing a big change. Both in my patience and inner peace levels and in the responses of my kids too.
The present moment is all there is. It is not some cheesy one liner or a movie dialogue. It is the hard-core reality of life. No matter what we do in this very second, we can’t rewind it to five moments back nor can we forward it to five moments later.
Accepting this moment is the starting point of inner peace. It creates space for us to tackle whatever comes our way creatively and compassionately.
Today, I hope you ask yourself, what is it about this moment that I am finding it difficult to accept? And by not accepting it, am I able to change it? How can I respond to this moment?
And that just might be the starting point of moving forward.
Friends,
I hope you found today’s reflection helpful in some way.
I am currently facilitating a 30-Day Reminder series on my IGTV during this time of self isolation and social distancing. There are daily prompts for journaling and little coaching exercises and activities that we can do together. Do join me there and share your thoughts and progress.
I am currently working on putting together more resources for you. Stay tuned.
I will see you next week.
Until then, take care and lots of love.
Nidhi
Brave, Brilliant & Fabulous You 